


Every Lifetime - in a Snow Globe

by nightbirdrises



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-01
Updated: 2015-01-01
Packaged: 2018-03-04 15:27:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3072992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightbirdrises/pseuds/nightbirdrises
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of a supposedly magical snow globe, the curious boy who owns it, and the even more curious boy who loves him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Every Lifetime - in a Snow Globe

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [klaine advent](http://klaineadvent.tumblr.com/) prompt "kindred," albeit a bit late. It's AU for the snow globe bit of it, but it's otherwise purely canon (with no spoilers). Originally posted [here](http://princehummel.tumblr.com/post/106668189666).

Kurt first receives the snow globe as a Christmas gift at the age of ten. It had been meant for him to have when he was eight, but as it was a gift from his mother, she hadn’t been around to give it to him. It’s not until Burt discovers the box deep in his closet (while organizing it at Kurt’s request) and realizes what it is that it ends up under the tree.

"You don’t have to keep it if you don’t want to," Burt says after he tells Kurt where the gift came from. "I completely understand if you’d rather get rid of it."

Kurt shakes his head. “It’s pretty, and it’s from her. I want to keep it.” Peering inside the snow globe, Kurt sees that it’s a generic winter scene with a small cottage, an evergreen tree, and, of course, snow. Curiously enough, however, the two small figures in front of the cottage, the ones holding hands, are both boys, as far as he can tell. One has hair like his and wears a blue scarf, while the other has dark, curly hair peeking out from under his red winter hat. “Where did she get it?”

"Sorry kiddo, no clue. Probably a garage sale or something, she loved those. Don’t know how, but she found a lot of gems in those places." Kurt decides not to mention the two boys in the snow globe - for some reason, pointing that out to his dad feels uncomfortable. Seeing them, though, makes him smile. He figures it’s not the first secret he keeps from Burt, and it probably won’t be the last, either.

 

* * *

 

Kurt doesn’t actually  _shake_  the snow globe until the last day of school before his holiday break, marking the end of his first few months in high school. Just as he expected, he despises the place and most of the people in it. When he gets home that afternoon, his first instinct isn’t to rush to save his shirt from the red slushie that had struck him just before he got on the bus, but to open all his drawers, searching. For what, he has no idea - just something that will make him feel better about the next four years of certain hell.

He discovers the snow globe tucked into the very back of his sock drawer and pulls it out. It takes a moment to remember what it’s from, but once he does, he smiles. The memory of his mom makes him smile more often than tear up now, which is at least one thing to be thankful for. He turns the snow globe over in his hands, gently, and marvels at the scene inside. He could have sworn that the two boys in there were much smaller when he first looked at them, but his memory could be wrong about that.

Kurt shakes the snow globe, wanting to see the snow fall serenely onto the scene, but unfortunately whoever made this snow globe put way too much snow in it - the scene is completely obscured by sparkling white flecks. What he sees when they finally settle down, however, makes him stare openmouthed.

The two boys are the same, but they’re wearing matching blazers. The scene itself has also changed - the snow and tree are still there, but the cottage has changed into what looks to be some kind of large palatial building decorated for the holidays, possibly an old university building or an actual palace based on the ornate fireplace and the piano Kurt can see because the other difference is that the outside wall of the building is gone, allowing him to look inside. Upon closer inspection, Kurt notices that the two boys must be wearing uniforms, but he can’t make out any lettering that could tell him where they’re from. Which makes sense - it’s just a snow globe, so the place and the uniforms probably don’t exist.

But if it’s ‘just a snow globe,’ how did it change? Kurt attributes the phenomenon to a lack of sleep brought on by the rash of tests and harassment at school in the past week. He puts the snow globe back in the drawer and lies on his bed, wishing for the restful nap he hasn’t had in far too long.

 

* * *

 

"I’m going to say something, and you have to promise not to laugh," Kurt says, pointing at Blaine, who smiles.

"I promise."

"Okay. Good. So, it’s been bothering me for a while that some places in Dalton are weirdly familiar to me, like that one study lounge with the fireplace."

"Which one?"

"The one that also has a piano."

"Ah, right. We sang Baby, It’s Cold Outside in there," Blaine says, shrugging his blazer off. "Do you mind? It’s kind of warm."

"Not at all, there’s a hook on the door." Kurt watches as Blaine carefully hangs his blazer up on his bedroom door. "Anyway, I figured it out, but I don’t think you’re going to believe me."

"Why not? Are you going to say you’re actually a time traveler?" Blaine’s eyes widen. "Are you the Doctor?"

"What? No. Who’s that?"

"I’ll show you later. I apologize for interrupting, go on." Kurt smiles to himself - for all his classic movie star charm, Blaine’s revealing himself to be more and more of a… well, kind of a dork sometimes, in Kurt’s opinion. It’s nice, though, to know that there’s more beyond the blazer. He’d seen hints of it while at Dalton, but ever since transferring back to McKinley and forcing them to meet far more often outside the school’s walls than inside, he’s been learning more about Blaine than he could have imagined. 

"A long time ago I got a snow globe for Christmas from my mom, sort of. I didn’t get it until a few years after she died, when Dad found it." Kurt opens the drawer and pulls the snow globe out, careful not to shake it too hard. "It looked like your average snow globe, with a little cottage and a tree. But I shook it and it… changed."

"Changed? How so?"

"Well, take a look." Kurt hands the snow globe to Blaine, who has settled cross-legged on his bed as usual. "Don’t shake it, though."

Blaine peers inside. “This looks exactly like Dalton,” he says, awed. “And the people… they look kind of like us.” He looks up at Kurt. “Do you think it really  _is_  us?”

"I have no idea," Kurt says. "Isn’t it strange, though? This happened years before I met you or even knew Dalton Academy existed, but they’re wearing the uniforms and everything."

"Wow…" Blaine holds the snow globe like he’s afraid it could explode in his hands. Kurt understands the feeling. "Wait, why don’t you want me to shake it?"

"It might change again," Kurt says. "Then again, it might not, but I kind of like it like this." He grins, sitting on the bed next to Blaine. "It’s like a personalized snow globe now that I’ve seen the place and met the boy and—"  _And fallen in love with the boy_. “And stuff.”

"And stuff," Blaine repeats, almost like he knows what Kurt didn’t say. He lies back on the bed and looks at the bottom of the snow globe. "Hey, there’s writing on it."

"What?" Kurt scrambles to lie next to Blaine, squinting up at the golden base of the trinket. "It’s just two words in overly-elegant script."

"Kindred Souls," Blaine reads. "Maybe that’s the brand." Kurt takes his phone out of his pocket.

"They might have a website," he mutters, opening the web browser on his phone. He types _kindred souls snow globe_  into Google while Blaine watches, just as curious. A few minutes of scrolling and checking the next pages, he has to admit it: “Nothing.”

"Wait, maybe that link—" Blaine reaches for the phone and underestimates the weight of the snow globe, which slips from his hand and lands with a thump on his chest before rolling to the bed. "Oh, no. Kurt, I’m sorry."

"Don’t be, are you okay?" Kurt asks, concerned. After all, his boyfriend is more important than a snow globe. But once Blaine nods and assures him he’s fine, Kurt reaches for the thing and picks it up. "It’s doing it again."

"Doing… oh," Blaine says, staring at the way the snow fills the inside of the glass sphere with white. "Is this what it did before?" Kurt just nods. The two of them watch as the snow settles down, revealing a new scene that’s familiar but… not.

"That looks like McKinley, sort of," Kurt says, turning the snow globe left and right. "That looks like the same football field, and those are the bleachers."

"I recognize them," Blaine says. "I don’t see any people in there, though."

"Weird," Kurt murmurs. He turns the globe 180 degrees and stops. "Oh! Oh my god, what has this thing done to my hair?"

"Looks like the Kurt in there dyed it pink," Blaine says. "I don’t think it looks that bad." Kurt stares again at the boys in the snow globe, now seated on some kind of couch behind the bleachers. He’s not sure how he knows that they’re the same two people - one has his hair dyed pink and clearly hasn’t figured out how to mend clothing, while the other has donned himself in black pants and boots and a white t-shirt, which is clearly a mistake if this is supposed to be winter. He looks a little longer and wonders if the leather jacket on the pink-haired boy’s shoulders actually belongs to the one that looks like he probably drives a motorcycle to school. After imagining that possibility, he shakes his head. It’s just a snow globe.

Possibly a  _magic_  snow globe. But still a snow globe.

"I don’t understand," Kurt says. "And don’t call him Kurt, it’s probably not me. It’s just some character in a Christmas keepsake."

"Who else could it be?" Blaine asks, amused. "He has your nose. And, by the way, you referred to him as you not thirty seconds ago."

"But… that’s impossible. They’re little things made of plastic or whatever. They can’t be  _us_ , not really.”

"I also didn’t think snow globes could do what this one just did, but as it turns out, at least one of them can." Blaine takes the snow globe from Kurt and sets it on the bedside table. "Look, let’s forget about it for now. I can tell it’s stressing you out a little bit."

"I’m not getting stressed out over a  _snow globe_ , Blaine,” Kurt says, rolling his eyes. Blaine raises an eyebrow and Kurt sighs. “It’s just… how?”

"I don’t know, but we can scour the Internet later," Blaine tells him. "For now I kind of want to…  _practice_.”

"We’ve used that euphemism way too much now," Kurt says, his heart starting to beat faster as Blaine props himself up on his elbow to lean over him. "I think it’s time we just call it what it is."

"Making out?" Kurt nods, realizes that his cheeks are already warm. He doesn’t have room to be embarrassed at how much Blaine affects him physically, however - he has someone to make out with, someone to kiss whenever he wants, provided they’re in the same place. Maybe someday, when he feels ready, whenever can also be wherever.

 

* * *

 

Kurt never discovers what exactly it is that causes the snow globe to change like magic. He refuses to bring it in to be examined because of the impossible chance it really  _is_  magic and, in that case, he’s afraid he won’t ever get it back. Either that or he’ll get laughed at once he explains the issue, which is something he’d rather avoid if he can. 

Besides, as time goes on, he comes to accept the strangeness of it and instead tries to understand the meaning of it. Blaine, of course, wants to keep shaking it to see if there’s any end to the worlds inside the snow globe, but Kurt prefers to let each world sit for weeks or even months before he shakes it again. 

Whether or not the two boys - who are  _always_  inside the snow globe, regardless of the scene - are supposed to represent them or not, it’s intriguing to imagine them as such. Not that Kurt would ever admit to thinking of them like that. It’s hard to avoid it, though, when he finds he can’t even bring himself to look at the snow globe while he and Blaine are broken up. 

They shake it again after they get back together. The previous scene, one of the Blaine-figure as a football player and the Kurt-figure as a Cheerio-like cheerleader, fades away to white. Replacing it is…

"What the hell  _are_  you?” Kurt asks, completely forgetting his aversion to relating the figures to themselves. “Are those tentacles?”

"Uh, let’s shake it again," Blaine says. "I want to be human."

"It’s not…" Kurt stares at the miniature alien version of his ex - no, boyfriend - no,  _fiancé_  - and sighs. “Okay. You do it this time.”

Blaine beams; it’s the first time Kurt’s letting him shake the snow globe, at least on purpose. He takes it in his hands like a precious jewel and shakes it gently, knowing it doesn’t take much. While they wait for the snow to settle, he asks, “Have you told your dad about this?”

Kurt shakes his head. “I don’t think he’d believe it even if he saw it. I kind of like having this secret thing between us, though, don’t you?”

"I do," Blaine says softly. He’s looking at Kurt, so he misses the moment that the white cloud fades into the new scene.

"Oh my god. Is that legal?" Kurt says, drawing Blaine’s attention to the snow globe, where the Kurt-but-not-Kurt figure stands behind the podium inside what looks like a lecture hall, Blaine standing on the other side of it with a tiny messenger bag that looks an awful lot like one of the ones he owns. "I don’t think it’s legal."

"Does it matter?" Blaine says. "Maybe sometimes it’s just… right."

"It looks like a college classroom, at least, so it might not be illegal in the sense of age," Kurt mutters, unaware that Blaine has spoken. "I’d— I mean,  _he’d_  probably get fired if anyone found out, though.”

"Every lifetime…"

"God, imagine what it must be like to meet the parents in that situation."

"Kurt."

"Hm?"

"I know you don’t like thinking of the people in there as us, but what if they are?"

"What do you mean?" Kurt asks warily, glancing away from the snow globe to look at Blaine, brows furrowed. "It’s… it’s just a snow globe."

"Obviously it’s not," Blaine says. "Normal snow globes don’t change. So why can’t this be a snow globe that represents us?"

"How does it represent us?" Kurt gestures to the lecture hall. "That’s not us, I’m not a professor. I probably never will be a professor."

"Maybe not in  _this_  lifetime you’re not.”

Kurt narrows his eyes, looks between Blaine and the snow globe. “Okay, a magic snow globe is one thing, but…”

"It’s kind of like I said when I proposed," Blaine says, hurrying to get his point across. "Who’s to say there  _aren’t_  different versions of us? In, I don’t know, alternate lifetimes or dimensions or whatever you want to call them.”

"That sounds like something out of Hollywood."

"Maybe, but you have to admit, it makes sense." Kurt’s expression softens at the pleading excitement etched in Blaine’s face.

"It does make some sense," he concedes. "We don’t have proof either way, though."

"No, I guess not." Blaine looks sadly at the snow globe and Kurt picks it up, moves to put it on the desk he hadn’t bothered to bring to New York with him. "I do kind of miss the very first one."

"Which one?" Kurt asks absently.

"The one that really was us. Well, the closest to us. The one at Dalton." Smiling, Kurt turns to look at Blaine, who has himself stretched out on his back on top of the bed. "We weren’t cheerleaders or vampires or… I still think that one a while ago had me as a stripper." Kurt huffs a laugh, shaking his head. "It was just us."

"Do you think we’ll ever get it back to that?" Blaine shrugs.

"It doesn’t matter, really," he says. "We have the memory of the real thing. Magic or not, everything in that snow globe is only a representation of something."

Kurt hums, climbing on the bed. “So the verdict is…”

"The only us that matters is us," Blaine says, reaching for him until Kurt’s chest presses against his. "But…"

"Hm?"

"We can keep the snow globe, right? Like, forever?"

Kurt grins, lets his lips skim over Blaine’s until he responds and kisses him. “We can keep it,” he says. “I’d miss me too much if I got rid of it.”

"You… hey," Blaine says shrewdly. "You’ve accepted that Kurt as Kurt."

"Yes, I suppose I have."

"Does that—" Blaine’s cut off by Kurt’s mouth at his throat. "Oh."

"How badly do you want that A on your exam?" Kurt murmurs, hoping Blaine will catch on. Thankfully he does, with a widening of his eyes just before he gets into character. The snow globe rests innocently on the desk until the next day, when Kurt takes it back to New York with him.

After he unpacks it, he realizes that the scene has changed due to being jostled around on the flight, but he doesn’t bother examining it just yet. He’ll save that for his Skype date with Blaine the following night, when they will talk about it for a few minutes before moving on, the snow globe being old news to them now. It’s almost ‘just a snow globe’ to them, but Kurt knows it’s special and more than a source of roleplay inspiration. It doesn’t matter _how_  it’s special or where it came from - all that matters is that the kindred souls inside it seem to reflect how Kurt feels about Blaine and vice versa.

Kurt doesn’t need proof to know that, not really. He simply believes it with his entire being, and in this case, believing is seeing in that snow globe that which might otherwise seem merely coincidental: “As if in every lifetime you and I have lived, we’ve chosen to come back and find each other and fall in love all over again, over and over, for all eternity.”


End file.
